Faye Dunaway, 85, makes effortlessly cool and incredibly rare red carpet appearance

The Oscar-winning actress, 85, wore a chic black column gown with sheer overlay at the Venice Film Festival, wearing her blond hair in gorgeous waves and posing in dark black cat-eye sunglasses.

She later walked the carpet for the Kinéo Awards – which have no official ties to the film festival – where she received the lifetime achievement award for her decades of work on the screen and the stage.

Faye – who has also won an Emmy, BAFTA, and three Golden Globes – has stepped back from the spotlight in recent years, choosing to live a quieter life, notably following the now-infamous moment at the 2017 Academy Awards, when she and Warren Beatty mistakenly announced La La Land as Best Picture instead of the true winner, Moonlight.

Earlier in 2026, she made her first red carpet appearance in two years for the 2026 TCM Classic Film Festival and a special screening of her Oscar-winning film Network, for which she won her first Best Actress statue from the Academy.

Faye rose to prominence in 1967 with her electrifying portrayal of Bonnie Parker in Bonnie and Clyde, and her career only soared from there, with genre-defying performances in The Thomas Crown Affair, Chinatown, Three Days of Condor, Eyes of Laura Mars, and The Champ.

In 2024 Faye revisited her extraordinary body of work with the HBO documentary Faye, and made a return to the stage with Matthew Lombardo's one-woman play Tea at Five in Boston. 

The production was set to move to Broadway but Faye was released from the play, reportedly due to altercations between the actress and crewmembers.

Faye will next be seen on screen with Nicola Peltz Beckham in Prima, about a power struggle between the old guard of a ballet company and newer, modern choreographers. 

Prima marks the feature directorial debut of brothers Alessandro Morelli and Luca Morelli, who joined Faye on the red carpet.

The Kineo Awards took place in the gardens of the Casa Cinema Giovani, and also honored Nicola with the rising star award for her work as an actress, producer and budding filmmaker.

Nicola refused to accept her award until Faye had arrived on stage, according to the Daily Mail, who reported the award was announced five times, with one presenter asking: "Where is our beautiful star?"

Faye told the crowd that the best advice she had was the Shakespearean line: "To thine own self be true."

"Faye, you have always been an inspiration to me and learning with you has been incredible," Nicola told the audience, thanking the organization for the honor, as well as husband, Brooklyn Peltz Beckham, and her family.

"My family are my everything. My mum, dad, (brothers) Diesel and Brad and Brooklyn thank you. You always believe in me. To have your support is the reason I can reach to the stars in the first place," she said.